


A Summary of How The Rest of This Series Would Have Gone

by Kadorienne



Series: Silver Tongue, Golden Lasso [6]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-14
Updated: 2013-10-14
Packaged: 2017-12-29 10:44:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1004457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kadorienne/pseuds/Kadorienne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I'm sorry, I can't keep writing this series. For those who care, here's a summary of how the rest would have gone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Community Service

**Author's Note:**

> It is with deep regret that I say that I am not going to be able to continue this series. I had several installments planned, but the clips and trailers of _Thor 2_ ruined Thor as well as the rest of Asgard for me completely. I had seen both as essentially good though flawed. But in _Thor 2_ Asgard has become a fascist dictatorship and the "good guys" are behaving like total scumbags. And worse, the moviemakers seem to expect us to accept that this is a good and okay thing.
> 
> Worst of all, Thor has turned evil too. One of Thor’s most iconic qualities has been never giving up on his brother, even though comics Loki did much worse things than movie Loki and with far less excuse. That’s been tossed aside because the moviemakers wanted to be dark and edgy, and apparently turning Thor into a piece of shit like Odin was the way to go about this. Speaking of which, what we’ve seen of movie Odin, in the movie tie-in comics as well as the previews, has made Odin even worse than he was in the first movie.
> 
> After the infamous clip of Thor talking to Loki in prison, there’s no way I can ever like Thor again. I don’t want to say movie Thor is now beyond redemption, but it would take several movies of suffering, life experiences, learning and atonement for him to even approach redemption. And I don’t think that he will, because the moviemakers don’t seem to see any problem with the whole unholy mess.
> 
> So I can’t finish this series, but for those of you who liked it, I’m going to summarize what was going to happen.

The working title for the next story was _Community Service_ , about the first years of Loki’s service on Earth. This was going to be more a series of short fics than a proper story with a central arc. 

I wanted to do a “movie night” chapter, mainly from Tony’s POV, about the Avengers+Loki watching various things and their amusing reactions. For instance, in _Kull_ , there’s a scene where the hero jealously asks the heroine, “What is he to you?” “My brother,” she replies. “Good,” he mutters to himself, relieved that the other man is not a rival for her affections. That would have given our favorite incestuous Norse gods a laugh.

Thor and Loki would also have been amused by the scene in _Watchmen_ where Laurie freaks out over there being multiple Jons.

Tony would have been a little worried about the effect _Dr. Horrible_ might have on Loki, but not to worry. Loki snickered every time the words “Captain Hammer” were spoken. Thor poked him, not gently, every time he laughed, but he was chuckling too. When the infamous “the hammer is my penis” line happened, they had to pause the DVD because Loki was laughing so hard. Thor dumped the popcorn on Loki’s head and a magically enhanced food fight ensued.

Tony would have done his best to filter out any movies or tv shows that deal with brothers, because the result would generally be weepy Norse gods. _Supernatural_ , for instance - every time they were allowed to watch it they ended up crying all over each other. Sisters weren’t much safer, as the Avengers would discover when they got to season 5 of _Buffy_ , where Dawn was introduced. [This conversation](http://mosellegreen.tumblr.com/post/56961794428) in particular would have started the waterworks. _Buffy_ wasn’t that good an idea anyway. Loki held forth on the opinion that Tara should have been more understanding rather than leaving Willow, until he realized everyone was looking at him funny and then shut up and refused to say anything else about the series, ever.

Loki’s comment on _Prince of Egypt_ : “It’s about a pair of brothers with a story not unlike ours. Except, in the movie it isn’t the secretly adopted brother who turns evil.”

 

I figured that Thor and Loki would quarrel constantly for the first couple of years. Thor would fall back into his old habits of unconsciously pushing Loki around, and Loki can’t and won’t live with that anymore. Inevitably they would quarrel fiercely, after which they would either have nice understanding talks that made them both understand things better or else they would have bed-breaking sex, or possibly both. This is kind of nerve-racking for the other Avengers, but they agree that it’s better that when Loki gets pissed the result is a screaming fight and then hot incestuous sex rather than a small city being levelled. On one occasion, shortly after Loki is first installed in the Tower, they’re fighting and Steve breaks in. “Wait, just for information: are you two always like this?” “Er, yes.” “Great. Take it outside. No hammer, no spear, don’t kill each other.”

I also envisioned a lot of affectionate banter because they would be so happy to be together again. Like, one day Loki’s curled up in the common room with a book, and one of the human Avengers notices the cover and kids him about “reading girl books”. Loki replies, “I’m reading it because the title reminds me of Thor.” Thor looks at it: it’s _A Little Princess_ by Frances Hodgins Burnett. Thor takes it from Loki, closes it (keeping Loki’s place with one finger, he knows better than to lose Loki’s place), thwaps Loki gently on the head with it, hands it back to him and goes about his business.

Occasionally the Avengers try to sound out Loki’s current plans. Once one of them asks, “What, you don't want to be king of Asgard anymore?" Loki retorts, "Usurping your boyfriend's throne more than once is hard on a relationship." Tony replies, "Yeah, for me it's always that second usurpation that tells me it's time to end it."

Also, Thor continues to wear his mourning vambraces. When Loki asks him about this, Thor tells him, "You have chosen to continue to wear your scars. I shall do the same."

Loki continues to challenge Thor, which really has been his job all their lives. Once Thor admits to the Avengers that without Loki to challenge him, he probably would have been a complete brat. Loki snarks, “‘Would have’?” Another time, Thor points out that one day he will be king and can give Loki commands. Loki says, "Yes, and you must be careful which ones you give me before witnesses. I would prefer not to undercut your authority by disobeying you in front of others."

Now that his supervillain career is forcibly ended, Loki’s trying to wipe the red out of his ledger by doing good deeds where he can. He spends a lot of time using the violet crystal Odin gave him to heal people, especially people who were injured by his own exploits. At first everyone’s afraid to let him, and he has to be chaperoned by Thor or some other hero, but after he’s behaved himself for a while they’re less wary. Of course, people also frequently take the opportunity to chew him out for the stuff he did, which he endures with a stiff upper lip but seriously hates. Another good deed he does is explain to Superman why he’s always getting mind-controlled: his brain is full of “back doors”. It could be a feature of Kryptonians, but since Supes is the only one we have left there’s no telling. Anyway, Superman gets one of the good guy sorcerers to plug up the holes, as it were.

Loki has been expanding his magic in the years since the movies. From the way he was trussed up at the end of _Avengers_ , I’m assuming that a lot of his spells require hand gestures or magic words. He’s been working hard on learning to do magic without those things, so that even if he’s chained and gagged and everything he can still do his spells, but he does his best to keep this secret. Finding out his true species has made a big difference, too. Before he kept hitting plateaus in his magic and didn’t know why. Now that he knows he’s a Jotun, he knows more about how his magic works and is able to pass by those plateaus. He tells Tony Stark about how the Bifrost works and gives him some fragments of it so that Loki can use whatever Tony discovers when it’s time for Loki to rebuild it.

 

This next scene I think was indirectly inspired by [The Saga of Hug Fortress](../series/18939). Remember that the first time Loki was lassoed, Thor made him tell Diana the story of Sleipnir? And they were still under surveillance? This means that whoever has access to the security footage at The Rock knows about Sleipnir. I figured somebody would tell the Avengers. Which means that one day, somebody comes back to the Tower with a story to tell.

When Loki realizes what they’re talking about, he glares at Thor. “You will rue this day, Odinson,” he says. “Fine, go ahead and tell them the whole story.”

So everybody is having a big laugh over Loki turning into a horse and giving birth, and Loki asks innocently, "Well, brother, why not tell them the rest of the story?"

Thor doesn’t really get it at first. "And our father claimed Sleipnir as his own mount and-"

"No, I mean the part about what happened to the builder."

"Oh, well-" And Thor stops. Because what happened to the builder in the myth is, he turned out to be a “rock giant”, so Thor killed him. Just like that. Thor’s changed a lot since then, and he knows the humans aren’t going to exactly sympathize with this, so yes, Loki has already gotten his revenge for this humiliation. Thor sheepishly admits all of this, the humans are of course horrified, and Thor tells Loki that he’ll speak to their father about changing the law so that it’s not legal to kill people just for being giants anymore. And if Odin won’t, Thor will when he’s king. Loki advises him, “Better get your father to do it if you can. If you do it, everyone will say it’s just because you’re lying with one.”

 

Here’s a _Labyrinth_ crossover reference I really was looking forward to making:

Loki says to Thor, with the human Avengers present, “Remember in Alfheim, six hundred years ago? They had a tyrant king. He got thrown out after a few years and made king of the goblins.”

“What does that mean?”

“…That’s he’s… king of the goblins.”

“It’s not a euphemism for being dead or in a dungeon, like ‘sleeping with the fishes’?”

“He is in the Goblin City, which is an actual physical city, populated by goblins, ruling it as king.”

“So they still let him be a king?”

“Of the goblins.” Clearly Loki considered that detail to be the definitive one.

“That doesn’t sound like punishment to me.” 

“That’s because you’ve never met a goblin.”

Thor explained, “It’s a notoriously bad job. Nobody wants to be king of the goblins. It’s essentially being an eternal babysitter, for an entire city full of the most stupid, irritating, unhygienic creatures imaginable. The Elvish aristocrats will barely even speak to him anymore, and even though he’s quite handsome and almost as charming as Loki when he wishes to be, no Elvish lady will lie with him, which for a man of his appetites is galling indeed.”

“Why not lady goblins?”

“…Because goblins are, on average, around two feet tall and exceedingly ugly. He has been reduced to seducing human women who have no idea how low his status is among his own people.”

Loki said, “Didn’t you hear? He married one of them a couple of decades ago. She outsmarted him when she was still a girl and he became smitten. When she was old enough he began to court her, and now the poor girl has to help him babysit the wretched goblins. She seems happy enough with her lot, however. Keeps him on a short leash. Had she been by his side when he was king of Alfheim he might have that throne still.”

 

The humans remain curious about how incestuous Norse gods grow up. When they ask about it, Thor and Loki explain that their parents were very much in favor of their romance; they thought the boys would be good for each other. Both parents took both sons aside for a Talk once they knew what was going on, but now the brothers find out that they got talked to about very different things. Frigga lectured Thor about treating Loki right, and questioned Loki to make sure Thor was treating him well, plus gave him some advice on handling men. (She knew, as everyone knew, that Loki was the “girl” in that relationship. Loki didn’t mind the role, indeed he enjoyed it most of the time, but the stigma sometimes attached did bother him.) Odin, on the other hand, saw the relationship as another way of securing his power over his future viceroy of Jotunheim. Also, he wanted to be sure that his actual son was on top, and he made a point of telling both of them that was how it had to be. It took centuries before Loki had the nerve to covertly defy that.

The Avengers also ask the brothers if they would have still felt romantic towards each other if they had grown up in a culture that didn’t condone sibling incest. Loki indicates Thor and replies, “How could I not? I went through puberty with _this_ prancing around in front of me.”

Thor agrees and talks about how Loki was a gawky adolescent and then one day, he blossomed into _this_. Loki says, “Well, more like… this,” and shows them a glamour of his pre-Jotunheim self. Tony says, "Aww, you were such a cute baby!" One of the others says, “Yeah. You look so... innocent. You're like Disney Prince Loki." Loki conjures cartoon birds to sing on his shoulders. Thor cracks up at the idea that even young Loki was innocent, but he's choked up at seeing Loki like that again. 

 

Bruce Banner eventually cures his Hulkness and he and Betty Ross get married and adopt a child - he’s still worried that Hulkness could be transmitted genetically.

 

I created this ‘verse back when it was still possible to believe that Odin had some good in him and felt some love for Loki. I figured the two of them would try to mend things between them at least somewhat. It wouldn’t work that well. Odin realizes he didn’t do an ideal job but he still massively Does Not Get It. Loki still loves him but is no longer able to suppress his massive anger at being second all of his life. So they try, awkwardly, to be a father and son again, and have the kind of screaming fights that normally happen during adolescence (for people whose fathers are not literally the king of everything).

 

One day Thor lets some big news slip:

Thor's eyes shifted. It was small, but enough of an anomaly that Loki noticed. "What?" he demanded. Already he knew he wasn't going to like this.

Resigned, Thor stood and inclined his head toward the elevator. Eyes fixed on him, Loki complied.

Once they were on their own floor, Loki just stood, staring at Thor with wide eyes. Thor drew a breath. He had tried to prepare words for this, but doubted any words could cushion the blow. Quietly, meeting his brother's apprehensive gaze, he said, "Loki... we have another brother now."

Loki went even paler than usual. After a long moment, he whispered, "When?"

Thor's eyes dropped for a second. "During the year that we thought you dead."

"Of course." Loki gave a bitter laugh. "Had to restock the supply of surplus princes. Where did he steal this one from?"

"I watched Mother's belly swell myself. Baldr is...." Thor's voice trailed off. There was no way to say this that would not be heard as _Baldr has the one thing you would have sold your soul for._

"Is a true Odinson." Loki walked to a chair as if dazed and dropped into it. "What is our little brother like?"

"He is but a child," Thor said.

"I can count, Thor. He must have some personality already."

"He has a friendly, cheerful disposition," Thor said reluctantly. "He does not seem particularly warlike, unlike me, or particularly clever, unlike you. He is... well liked."

"Of course he is." Loki closed his eyes and let his lips curl in a sour smile. Abruptly his eyes opened. “And… your father?”

“Our father.”

“This is a very bad time to say that. You know what I am asking.”

Thor sighed heavily. “And you know what the answer is.” _Now Loki is not the second favorite son, but the third._

"And his existence has been kept secret. They were afraid I would try to kill him!"

Thor shifted from one foot to the other. "You did try to kill the brother you already had several times, and you had loved me for centuries. No one knew that your attempts were not in earnest."

"One of them was," Loki corrected swiftly. He always refused to grant himself the least quarter when it came to his history of misdeeds. He closed his eyes again, looking sick. "I don't dispute that it was a reasonable assumption. That does not make me happy about it."

Slowly, Thor closed the distance between them and tried to put his arms around Loki, but Loki abruptly stood. "I have to be alone for a while."

"Loki-"

"We agreed, Thor."

"Loki-"

"I won't do anything supervillain-y, I promise. I'll be back... in a few days."

Thor didn't want him to go, but it was true, they had agreed. And if he could not trust Loki to refrain from supervillainy if he were left unsupervised for a few days, then there was no hope for them in any case. Reluctantly he stepped back. Loki left.

For four days, Thor paced the Tower incessantly. There were not enough Avengers missions to keep him busy; Thor's teammates pestered the Justice League to take him off their hands for a time. Thor hammered numerous monsters and aliens imprudent enough to come to New York that week, but stayed close to home so that he would be there when Loki returned.

On the evening of the fourth day, Loki did return, showing up on the common living floor without announcement, making a beeline for the first chair in sight and sinking down upon it. Jarvis had alerted Thor to Loki's return immediately. He hurried to embrace Loki.

"You're freezing! Where in the Nine have you been?"

"Jotunheim," Loki mumbled, his eyes drifting closed.

For a few seconds Thor was too stunned to speak. "Are you mad?"

"Yes."

Thor jostled him. "You know it is against the law to go there!"

Loki's only reply was a soft chuckle.

"And you know how dangerous it is! You remember what happened when I dragged us all there! And if any of the frost giants recognize you, you'll be lucky if all they do is kill you!"

Thor's voice was, suitably, thunderous. Unconcerned, Loki slumped over a table and let his head sink down onto his folded arms. Thor shook him angrily, and when that yielded no response, with a growl of frustration slung his brother over his shoulder and stalked to the elevator with him. Normally Loki would not have endured being carried this way, but now he was too exhausted to protest, or pretending to be. Either way, it would be no use to try to talk to him now. Thor dumped Loki into bed, pulled off his boots, and stretched out beside him, hoping to warm him.

Loki slept for most of the following day. When he finally rose, neither of them mentioned the newest addition to their family. Thor ferociously ordered Loki never to go to Jotunheim again. Loki only smiled. Thor then reasoned with Loki about never going to Jotunheim again. This yielded no better results, except that Loki deigned to give his reasons for his stubbornness. "I am trying to learn to use my Jotun powers. It would be useful to be able to assume the form at will, or conjure ice."

"You can do enough magic already. It can't be worth the risk."

"Yes, it can."

"How?" Thor demanded.

He was speaking rhetorically, but Loki answered with seriousness. "Thor, do you remember how sometimes on Asgard, my magic would reach a limit beyond which it could not go? A limit where it seemed none should be. Something which sorcerers of similar strength to mine could do, but I could not. I could not teleport, even for short distances. I could not turn invisible without creating a doppelganger to hold my image. I could not grow a beard."

"Are you still trying to grow one?"

Loki laughed. "You look horrified. Would it be so dreadful if I had one?" Thor tried to school his face, but apparently without success, because his brother laughed again. "That is so like you. I am covered with scars and you still find me beautiful. I try to kill you and seize your throne and you forgive me. I become a supervillain and you still love me. But facial hair is apparently a ‘deal-breaker’.”

"It is not-"

"Fear not, I am not going to grow one. I don't want one now. What matters is, the growth of my magic was limited because I did not know its true nature. Because I did not know that I was a Jotun."

"Are you not powerful enough?"

Loki's face grew cold with resolve. "Never. I shall become powerful enough that I need have no fear of Thanos or Darkseid. That I may defend the Nine Realms from them and other monsters. I _must_ continue to learn, Thor."

Thor studied him. "And what if you should go mad again?"

Loki laughed lightly. "Keeping me sane is _your_ job, dear brother."

 

Shortly afterwards Loki goes to Asgard to meet Baldr. The first time he sees the boy - who looks a lot like Thor, only a little less blond - he asks him, “Are you afraid of me, little brother?” The boy stoutly declares that he’s not, even though he obviously is. Loki smiles and tells him, “You shouldn’t be. I tried fratricide once. I didn’t like it.” And Loki works on building a relationship with his new brother. At some point he tells the boy frankly that no matter what, Thor will always be their father’s favorite. “But at least you’re a less distant second than I was.”

 

Once they’re discussing their trust of each other, and lack thereof. Thor gives Loki a ring and vows that if ever Loki returns it to him, Thor will trust him. Thor knows, of course, that if the stakes are sufficiently high Loki will misuse it, so he warns him not to abuse it. That is, to be certain that it’s worth it. 


	2. Hela

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki adopts an abandoned Jotun child.

Loki continues to visit Jotunheim often, despite Thor’s disapproval. He’s careful to avoid Jotuns, but one night he passes through a seldom-visited temple and finds… an abandoned baby Jotun. A runt, like himself. He picks the child up and takes it back to Earth with him, with no clear idea what he’s going to do with it, he just can’t leave it to die.

Thor is always on edge when Loki’s in Jotunheim, so when Loki returns rather late at night, all the Avengers are sitting around trying to keep Thor company and distract him. Loki’s still in Jotun form for the baby’s comfort, and this is the first time Thor’s seen his Jotun form. (He’s asked to see it several times, but Loki just couldn’t deal with it yet.) 

So anyway, all the Avengers are hanging out on Thor’s floor, and they look up, and there’s Loki in the doorway, blue, holding a blue baby. They all stare at the tableaux. 

Loki gets defensive. “What is this, an intervention?"

Tony’s the one to retort, “Well, we were going to have a talk with you about safe sex, but I see it's already too late."

Thor comes over and starts to reach for the baby, but stops. Loki says, “You can touch her, she won’t hurt you.” The humans say sarcastic things about a baby hurting the mighty Thor, and the brothers explain about the Jotun frostbite touch, but Loki’s learned that for one thing, a Jotun has to be doing it on purpose, and for another, babies can’t do it, that ability develops when they’re older. So Thor holds the baby.

Loki is physically exhausted as well as upset by finding a fellow abandoned Jotun runt and by everybody seeing him in his Jotun form. He starts babbling about how he’ll move out of the Tower because he’s keeping the baby - he still can’t quite believe anyone’s willing to have one frost giant under their roof, let alone two. Tony’s all, “Don’t be ridiculous. You're obviously about to drop, don't worry, we'll look after Smurfette while you're asleep.” Loki is mildly irritated by the nickname but knows there's no point complaining about it, because everyone’s going to call her that. “Just tell us what baby frost giants eat and go to bed.”

“Naughty Asgardian children.”

Since frost giants don’t have nipples, my theory is that they feed their young the same way mother birds do. Loki didn’t have the leisure to find meat so he’s been letting the child drink his blood. Tony has Jarvis order meat-based baby food.

Loki’s reluctant to go to bed and leave the baby, so Thor hands her to the nearest Avenger, who happens to be Bruce. Bruce is alarmed - he’s fine with babies, but of course most people are afraid of his Other Guy. I liked this moment because none of the Avengers or Loki even thought of that and none were alarmed about Bruce holding the baby. Anyway, Thor puts his little brother to bed before he can get overwrought enough to start crying in front of everyone and then be mad about it afterwards.

When Loki awakens, well into the next day, he hears sounds and goes in search of Thor. The whole team is in a room of Thor’s floor, wearing sweaters because the room is heavily air conditioned, creating a nursery. Loki stands there, gobsmacked, while Tony explains how they went with a winter theme to make her feel at home, and lots of blue even though she's a girl, but what the heck babies can't see color at that age anyway, at least human babies can't who knows with frost giants, but anyway stuff is cold-proofed, and he's got an awesome AC unit that can make it as cold as she needs to be comfortable, if necessary they can even make a walk-in fridge.

Loki is all, "…" And he points out that the one time a Jotun foundling was raised on another planet, it didn't turn out so well. They all dismiss this. Steve is horrified Loki would even think they might blame her for being a Jotun. Natasha is less maternally inclined than any of them (heh), but doesn't like the idea of childhoods being messed up. Clint and Bruce are more quiet but have already adopted the kid. The whole team has adopted her, in fact; she’s got the world’s best set of uncles and aunt.

Loki gets all teary eyed and is all, "...Thank you." 

Tony's already going on about the special schools for metahumans so she won't have to feel weird being the only one who’s not a standard issue vanilla human. Also he’s already got the wheels in motion to get her a resident visa. "Give her here, Clint, it's my turn to hold her. Come to Uncle Tony, Smurfette. Hey, did you guys know frost giants are ticklish?”

“I did,” Thor says, and Loki swats him.

Then they broach another subject, which is that there was diaper changing while Loki was asleep and they found out that she’s a girl _and_ a boy. “So, uh. You called the baby ‘she’, but….”

“She seems like a girl to me. Maybe she has a feminine personality. When she’s old enough to express an opinion on the matter, if she wishes I can make her… warm-blooded form a male one.” He intends to enchant her when she’s older so that she can assume a warm-blooded, Asgardian form at will when she doesn’t want people staring at her for being blue.

“So. Do you think that might be why she was left?”

“No. She was left for the same reason I was left, because she is a runt. In all other respects she is a perfectly normal frost giant.”

“So, are all frost giants….”

“Hermaphrodites. Or, to use the trendier but less poetic term, intersex.”

Tony starts to ask the obvious question, but even he feels awkward about asking something like that, and Loki does not exactly look like he’s interested in discussing it. Loki says bitingly, “Do you know what a syllogism is, Stark?” Everyone’s left to do the math in their heads: Frost giants are intersex, Loki is a frost giant, therefore…. At that point even Tony has the sense to drop the subject.

"So have you named her?"

"Of course. Her name is Hela."

"That's pretty. Hela Lokisdottir."

"...Oh, no. I can't do that to her." He has a meltdown over the idea of saddling a helpless child with his name. The others try to distract him by suggesting other names. Like Smith, short for Liesmith?

"Does Asgard have naming customs for foundlings? Here they used to name them after where they were found. So you could call her 'Hela Snow', maybe."

"I have read _Game of Thrones_. I am not saddling her with a name that marks her as a bastard, even by the customs of fiction."

"Hela Jotunheim?"

"In Italy they used to name them 'Esposito' - it means 'to leave outside'."

Naturally Loki dislikes that even more. In the end they settle on “Silver”, derived from “Silvertongue”.

Hela grows up happy and well-adjusted, surrounded as she is by protective superheroes who love her. Loki forces himself to get over most of his internalized jotunophobia, his self-hating frost giant issues, so that he won’t convey those issues to her. The story of Hela’s adulthood was going to be woven in with the later fics in this series, but since they won’t get written, here’s what was going to happen: when Hela reaches adulthood, she chooses to live on Earth; Jotunheim didn’t want her and she’s too small to be comfortable there, and Asgard, as we have seen, is not a great place for a frost giant, even one who’s been adopted by royalty. Earth, on the other hand, was willing to accept her, by human standards she’s on the tall side, and she’s thoroughly assimilated into Midgardian culture. As a human she’s a doctor, as a Jotun she’s a superhero, using her Jotun strength and abilities. Even when Loki eventually leaves Earth he returns to visit her often, as does Thor, and they love each other a lot.


	3. Thanos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanos is dealt with.

At some point the Thanos issue has to be dealt with. So: Thor and Loki are on some other planet battling baddies, and Loki realizes that Thanos’s henchmen have come to fetch him, and they’re hopelessly outnumbered, there is no escape. But Thor could escape, if he fled now, leaving Loki to them. Loki asks Thor to do that, but of course Thor won’t. So Loki says, “Kiss me,” and Thor interprets this as wanting one last kiss, just in case, before the battle. Actually, it was his way of distracting Thor so he could poke him with his mind-control sceptre. Loki puts the violet healing crystal Odin gave him around Thor’s neck and orders, “Leave me. Get yourself to safety. Survive. When you are out of Thanos’s reach and safe, ask your friends to hit you hard in the head. I love you. Now go." Thor goes, and Thanos’s henchmen capture Loki and take him back to Thanos and a resumption of the old torture.

When Thor gets back to safety and gets his friends to hit him in the head, he is not happy with what Loki pulled, but of course he’s mainly concerned with rescuing him. He asks Odin for help first, but Odin won’t send an army or let Thor take any relics from the vault. Thor steals the Infinity Gauntlet from the vault and goes to Earth to ask Midgard’s heroes for help. He actually only intends to ask Superman, who can withstand damn near anything. My headcanon is that the Gauntlet should only be wielded by the “pure of heart” (in my _Stolen Relics_ it was Steve Rogers who used it), and Thor doesn’t consider himself quite pure enough, so he asks Superman. Besides, Superman is used to being ridiculously powerful in comparison to everyone around him, he’s not likely to be corrupted by the Gauntlet.

But when Midgard’s heroes find out what’s up, many of them volunteer to go along. So a huge army of superheroes shows up to kick Thanos’s butt and rescue Loki. Naturally Loki finds this incredibly gratifying, a whole army of champions - from a world he’s harmed a great deal, no less - coming to his rescue. It restores much of his faith in heroism. He starts to think the universe might not be all that bad after all.

Once Loki and Thor are alone, Loki has to apologize for mind-whammying him. Thor isn’t happy about that but he does understand. In any case, Loki’s in pretty bad shape from the torture and Thor can’t get too mad at him. Loki’s surprised that Odin let Thor take the Gauntlet, and Thor tells him proudly that he stole it. Loki hides his reaction, but this is actually a bad thing.

Thor takes Loki back to Asgard to be tended by the healers there. At some point during his recuperation, Loki has a private talk with Odin. Odin tries to excuse himself for not sending relics or warriors to Loki’s rescue: it was too risky, too dangerous, the relics could have been lost and fallen into evil hands, etc. "I had to act as a king, not a father,” Odin tells him. 

"Of course, All-Father. You always have. Except, of course, when your son is concerned."

Odin is stunned because he honestly didn't stop to think that if it had been Thor, he would have rescued him, risk be damned. But he would have. And his affection had blinded him to his royal duty in the past, like when he tried to put Thor on the throne when he wasn't ready. He really is sorry to have failed Loki again here. “And if I had...?"

"I would have forgiven you everything. I would have begged forgiveness for every trespass I have ever made. I would have been your son again, had you allowed it. I would have gratefully accepted whatever crumbs you cared to throw me. In short, it would have been exactly as it was before, except weighted even more in your favor.”

"Loki, I am sorry. I do love you."

"I know. Just not enough to give me a chance.”

“Let me-“

“I have given you thousands of chances. You never gave me even one.”

 

Both of them kind of mope around separately for a few days, and then Odin gets Loki alone for another heart-to-heart. I wrote a rough draft of this scene:

 

“All-Father?”

“Will you not call me Father, Loki?” Loki did not answer. “Never mind. Please, sit by me. I must speak.”

Loki obeyed, wordless, wary.

“Loki. Long ago, before either of you were born, Asgard was an embattled realm. Its survival, never mind its greatness, was imperiled. I had to do many things in Asgard’s service. Things I am not proud of. Things I never told you or your brother of. Some things which no other living soul knows of.”

Loki looked at him, waiting.

“It is true that sometimes a king must do things he wishes he did not have to. Must harden his heart. But I came to believe this was the true test of a king. To be willing - be _able_ \- to be deaf to my own heart, when the throne’s duty called. I hardened my own heart when I banished Thor to Midgard. I hardened my own heart to you… many times. When I feared losing my heir - Asgard’s next king - in a battle against the mad titan. I suppose it is too much to ask you to forgive me. But I do ask that you learn one thing from me, and hear one thing from me.”

“Yes, All-Father?”

Odin winced. “Learn that the ability to harden your heart is not the true test of a king. You will not be a king but you will always have power. My firstborn does not need to learn this from me; he could not harden his heart if he tried. But you are my son in spirit if not in body. You could do it - you have done it - and you could commit the same folly that I have.”

He stopped, and both men were silent for a long time before Loki said quietly, “I will learn this from you, Father.”

Odin’s eye closed at the last word. It was a long time before he spoke again.

“Hear this one thing from me: I do love you. My son.”

After several minutes, Loki spoke.

“I forgive you… Father.”


	4. The Bifrost and the Son of Coul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki rebuilds the Bifrost and hires an advisor.

In the first story, Odin decided to take a lesson from Midgard; since punishing or locking up Loki had proved ineffective, they would saddle him with making reparations. So once Loki’s done with his fifty years of service on Midgard, he has to carry out his sentence on Asgard of rebuilding the Bifrost. This was expected to take several decades, thus keeping Loki too busy to cause trouble for some time.

Loki, of course, has other ideas. He’s continued to study magic diligently and he let Tony Stark and other human scientists play with bits of the old shattered Bifrost so that he could utilize whatever they learned. The result is that when it was time for him to rebuild the Bifrost, he was able to do in a matter of days the task that was expected to keep him occupied for decades.

Loki is very pleased with himself, and probably unconsciously thought Odin would actually be impressed. He is promptly disappointed, because when Odin sees what he’s done, what’s in his face is _fear._ And the rest of Asgard shares it. Only Thor is proud and pleased. Everyone else is frightened of how powerful Loki is. And Loki knows that people who are that scared of you are likely to stick a knife in you while you sleep.

Loki realizes he has badly miscalculated. He keeps up a brave front, but he knows he needs to do something. He also realizes that his sanity never has mended itself entirely and will always have a few holes in it, so he needs another mind to help keep his on track. He needs an advisor. But there’s no one in Asgard who is both wise enough to advise him and loyal to Loki. Indeed, the only two Asgardians who are loyal to Loki are Frigga and Thor. Thor isn’t smart enough to advise him and Frigga will inevitably be more worried about Loki’s morals and safety than his objectives, so that’s no good.

Consequently, one night an elderly Phil Coulson finds the god of mischief sitting in his living room. “Greetings, son of Coul. I have a proposition for you.”

And he offers him a golden apple.

Coulson says, “I thought those apples were a myth.”

“They are. This is a symbol of what I am offering.”

“Immortality?”

“I am offering to turn you into an Asgardian. They only live ten or twelve thousand years. Not forever.”

“In return for what?”

“I find myself in need of counsel.”

Loki knows that both duty (to keep Loki from doing bad stuff) and his sense of adventure will make Coulson accept. They negotiate a bit, and agree that in return for being made Asgardian, Coulson will work for Loki for at least two centuries, further service to be negotiated if things work out. And of course, if Loki turns evil again Coulson’s obligation to work for him is null and void.

Loki tests Coulson first by asking why he thinks Odin never put Loki on the Jotun throne. Coulson says Loki is too smart and too sneaky to be easily controlled in such a position. He uses Loki’s actions as king of Asgard as an example, how he had to go with an elaborate scheme. Loki has only just realized this himself, when he saw how afraid Odin was when he saw how powerful Loki’s magic had become. 

Then Loki explains about his sentence of rebuilding the Bifrost, and that he now is capable of doing it quickly, as asks for Coulson’s advice. “You aren’t going to like what I have to say.”

“I’m a prince, a powerful sorcerer and a former supervillain. I can get all the sycophants I want to tell me what I like hearing. I am making this offer to you because you have the stones to tell me what I need to hear.”

Coulson advises him not to do it fast because people will freak out and won’t feel the satisfaction of knowing he labored as punishment for his sins. 

Loki is bleakly amused. “A pity I didn’t ask you this two months ago.”

“You already did it, didn’t you?”

“Yes. What do you advise I do now?”

Coulson’s advice is that Loki go to some other realm for a few years, give Asgard time to forget and get over it. Also, that he make sure it’s obvious to everyone that Thor has a hold on him, that Thor has him under control. Which is sort of true, so no problem there. 

The first problem is persuading Thor, who of course doesn’t want them to be separated again. But Loki convinces him that Thor’s needed in Asgard and Loki just needs to take care of a few things elsewhere - I hadn’t worked out exactly how Loki persuades him of this. 

In the first story, part of Loki’s nebulous plans for the future included this:

> One day crowds would cheer for him as they had for Thor at his interrupted coronation. Not on Asgard, but somewhere. Even if he were cast down the next moment, he would have had it. After he was done with his show of contrition on Earth _which would be quite a lark really_ and rebuilt the Bifrost, perhaps he would find some besieged planet and lead it to glorious victory against its attackers, pretend to be like Thor for a while. Tony Stark was able to convince his allies that he barged in without thinking like a proper hero should, winning on the basis of guts and virtue untainted by such sordid things as _strategy_ , when actually his every move was meticulously planned. Loki could play that trick, on a far grander scale. It would be a splendid jape. And after he grew bored with their adulation and left them to their own devices and their fond memories of him (which he would leave blessedly intact, for centuries after they would strike down anyone who dared speak ill of him to them after _all he had done for them)_ , he would wear whatever regalia they had seen fit to decorate him with for the rest of eternity, that none would ever forget that he, too, could do what Thor did, when he had a mind to.

So he finds some beleaguered world and leads them in defending themselves from their enemies. This of course proves a Pyrrhic victory. I figure that the enemy who’s attacking is so evil that Loki is forced to resort to some pretty nasty measures himself to defeat them. I had a couple of ideas about what these measures would be, but hadn’t decided for sure. So anyway, when their victory is complete, he gets the cheering crowds he had hoped for, and the ruler of the world he helped gives him a special shield as reward and badge of honor, and everybody throws flowers at him and stuff. And Loki loves it, but the whole time he can’t entirely forget the things he had to do, and that taints the pleasure. He might as well have had a slave whispering to him, as was the ancient Roman custom during a triumph, “You are mortal.”


	5. King of Jotunheim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki claims his rightful throne.

“There is,” said the woman, and her voice was beautiful to hear, “a casket set with fabulous gems, glittering and hard. And within this casket is a casket of gold, and within that casket a casket of silver. Open these three in turn, and you will find a casket of crystal, and inside the casket of crystal one of pearl, and within the pearl a box of velvet. And within the velvet an exquisite jewel. But within the jewel, what?”

The boy thought. He said, “Inside so many rich wrappings, only something more rich can lie.”

“Ah, you must read with your heart and not with your wit,” said the woman, so tenderly tears started to his eyes. “…Now open the six rich caskets, gaze into the jewel. There you will find a child, weeping.”

~Tanith Lee, _Delirium’s Mistress_

 

The quotation above was going to be at the start of this fic.

Loki’s been laying the groundwork for this one for decades. On his visits to Jotunheim, he’s been covertly learning about his native realm and propagandizing. There’s two factions on Jotunheim. Sort of religious factions, like Catholic and Protestant or something. The differences between them aren’t really important from Loki’s perspective, and there’s not any objective moral difference to speak of. But Loki sees a way to use this. He promotes the idea that Jotunheim’s woes are largely the fault of having a king (Laufey) who belonged to Faction A, and Faction A sucks. Heck, it was the lousy actions of Faction A that led Loki to try to destroy their realm! It’s all Faction A’s fault! Loki knows this is going to be rough on Jotunheim, having their schism exacerbated and hostilities between the factions increased, but he is Odin’s son in spirit if not in body and squares it with his conscience by telling himself that Jotunheim will be much better off when his plan is complete, which is true though Machiavellian. 

Remember a few stories back, Loki asked Thor for a token? And Thor gave him a ring and swore that when Loki returned that ring to him, Thor would trust him in what he was doing at the moment.

So one morning shortly after Loki’s returned to Asgard after the previous adventure, Thor is informed that the Casket is missing from the weapons vault. He goes, and on its pedestal is that ring. 

Loki arrives in Jotunheim, declares himself a proud member of Faction B, and claims the Jotun throne by right of blood. Faction B has become powerful and disgruntled enough that they are quite ready to seize on a prince who belongs to their faction, despite the obvious problems with Loki being that prince. In any case, he has the Casket, and is quite able to magically defend himself against attempts to take it from him, and above all else Jotunheim wants the Casket back.

And so Loki is king of Jotunheim. Now let anyone tell him he’s not Thor’s equal. He asks Hela if she wants to be heir to the Jotun throne, but she likes Earth and has no interest in Jotunheim.

He ~~shows off to his brother~~ establishes diplomatic relations with Asgard. I pictured a scene where Loki nervously introduced Thor to his biological brothers, Helblindi and Byleistr. Thor is prompt to claim them as brothers too, an indication of how he’s changed since the beginning of the first movie. Loki remarks, “Odd, isn’t it? We’ve acquired so many brothers, yet nary a sister.”


	6. A Royal Marriage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A marriage between the royal houses of Jotunheim and Asgard. Also, kinky sex and babies.

Now that Loki’s secured his own throne, he’s done the things he felt he needed to do to prove himself to the universe and he can relax a bit. Thor, for his part, doesn’t want Loki wandering off for more adventures.

The fact is, both of them have been planning since they were reunited at the end of the first story that eventually they would get married, but neither of them has broached the subject. Thor was worried that Loki would be insulted, especially since Loki will be taking the female role in at least one indisputable way: he has to bear the children, being the Jotun. Loki’s actually dealt with all that long since, but he wants Thor to ask him; he’s still too afraid of rejection to ask himself. 

So now at long last, Thor proposes. Loki has a lot of conditions. For instance, no banishing the children without consulting him.

Asgard is pleased; to them it seems that the Mighty Thor’s studliness has tamed the dangerous Loki Silvertongue, plus neutralized Jotunheim as a potential threat. Odin would rather have arranged some other marriage for Thor. Also, despite his affection for and remorse towards Loki, he’s still threatened by Loki’s influence over Thor. I was even thinking of a scene where Odin and Loki talked privately, and Loki tells him, “Do not ask him to choose between us. That is not a contest you shall win.” Anyway, Frigga is delighted at the marriage, and Odin sulks a bit, reflecting that here he is, the most powerful man in the Nine Realms, and he can’t even control his own family.

Heimdall is an anti-Jotun bigot - that’s why he disliked Loki from the start. [Exploringmcuasgard.tumblr.com](http://Exploringmcuasgard.tumblr.com/) has speculated that he might be a fire giant or something, so I went with that. Heimdall is no longer willing to live in Asgard now that it’s getting overrun with frost giants and humans and other such riff-raff. When Loki rebuilt the Bifrost, he altered it so that Heimdall could no longer operate it, so Heimdall is considerably less powerful now. Neither Thor nor Loki wants Heimdall around once they have kids - who would? He’d send the kids to some enemy realm where they’d get killed! So Odin makes him Asgard’s ambassador to Muspelheim, which is Heimdall’s native realm. In the comics, Sif was Heimdall’s sister, so I’m keeping that, and she goes with him, now that she knows she’s never going to get Thor.

For the ceremony, Loki takes not only Asgardian form, but also female form. Thor is instantly enraptured - not that he likes Loki better as a girl, but this is something different. Also, he missed the female body - I figured it would be unlikely for two healthy, gorgeous, high-ranking young men like them to be faithful only to each other for the centuries before the movies, so I decided that they both had affairs with women, but neither had any other men. (During his supervillain years, Loki did have a few affairs with men. He always topped, allowing himself to feel he hadn’t _entirely_ been unfaithful, as he never received from any man but Thor.) After their reunion in the first story, they’ve cleaved only to each other, so neither has had a woman in a long time and they miss that. Loki won’t let Thor have him in his female form until they’re married. (He’s not that kind of girl.)

Loki’s new form lets him have a little fun with Asgard before everyone knows it’s him. When Fandral sees Lady Loki, of course he’s instantly in lust. He starts flirting, and of course Loki flirts back, saying coy things like, “Why, Fandral, I’m hurt that you don’t remember me.” 

Thor sees this going on and comes over. “My lady, allow me to protect you from the dishonorable intentions of this cad.”

“Thor! Shield-brother! After all we’ve been through together!”

“Fandral, I trust you with my life, but no man of sense would trust you with his sister.”

“Your-“ The penny drops. Loki smiles and Fandral recognizes that smile. “By the Norns, it _is_ Loki.” Loki laughs while Thor drags, ah, her away. “I’m going to announce you before you cause any more trouble.”

“I caused nothing, I was minding my own business when that bounder came along and tried to steal your girl.”

“Poor Fandral will never look at a brunette without suspicion again.”

Frigga, goddess of marriage, conducts the ceremony. Before it, she’s helping Loki get ready (“I always wanted a daughter”) and of course Loki has the pre-wedding jitters from hell. She’s freaking out and Frigga is trying to soothe her when a servant comes with a note from Thor.

“Nervous, brother? Just remember how I fought my way through a hundred warriors in Nornheim.”

Loki laughs. Frigga asks what it says. Loki says, “That he is nervous too. And… that he needs me.”

So they get married, and Loki experiences sex as a chick. The next night, it’s Thor’s turn - one of Loki’s conditions was that if he was going to be Thor’s wife, Thor also had to be his. Oh, Loki will still have all the babies, and no one else will know, but sometimes Loki wants to transform Thor into female form and have him that way. I have a special fondness for Male!Loki/Female!Thor, so I was looking forward to writing this. They would have sex with one or both of them in Jotun form as well, but possibly they’ve been doing that for years.

Loki gets pregnant very promptly. With twins, Vali and Narvi, an heir for each throne. I hadn’t yet decided if one would be Jotun and one Asgardian, or if they could both shift shapes. Anyway, he keeps his female Asgardian form for the pregnancy, and spends most of it sitting around being smug, as who wouldn’t be with two kings in her belly. (Comment from a friend of mine: “Oh, he’s going to be one of _those_ pregnant women.”) 

Loki’s still quite paranoid and insists that Thor stay with him during childbirth in case he needs defending. Asgard’s midwives are not amused when they learn of this; as they point out, it is not Asgard’s customs for men to be in the birthing chamber. Loki snaps, “ _I’m_ going to be there!”

I also figured Loki would use his magic to modify the birth to make it easier (though visually appalling)… and to make both the babies born in the same moment, their arms wrapped around each other. So that neither would be the older. What do you mean, Loki should be over that by now? He’ll never be over being the younger son.

Loki finally gets Odin to abdicate by refusing to let the twins spend much time in Asgard. Loki has to be in Jotunheim a lot in order to govern it, and he won’t leave the children in Asgard without his direct supervision. There are other factors in Loki’s pressure on Odin to abdicate as well, but I didn’t make those up yet. Odin asks in frustration, “What do you think I might do to my own grandchildren?” “Certainly not strip them of their immortality and powers and strand them alone and helpless on some faraway realm. Or lie to them about their species. Or tell them that the species to which they belong is evil and monstrous. Or break their hearts to achieve your political ends.” Point taken, Odin reluctantly abdicates and makes Thor king, permanently. 

Thor and Loki raise their twins, loving both of them to pieces. I imagine Thor saying things like, “That look won’t work on me, I grew up with your mother.” They continue to have lots of hot sex, even hotter now that shape-shifting has been added to the equation. 

For the last scene in the fic, Loki is in female form. He tells Thor he wants him in female form tonight. He transforms Thor and Thor goes to change clothes. He returns to the boudoir expecting to find Loki back in male form. Instead, Loki’s still female. Lady Thor starts to ask, “Aren’t you going to….” Loki grins, and Thor catches on. 

Hey, you’re with the same person for hundreds of years, you have to keep the sex exciting somehow.


	7. Conclusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story concludes.

This final story was going to be set many years later. Vali and Narvi are all grown up. Thor is still king of Asgard. Loki has long since abdicated his own throne and passed it to one of his sons. The fact is, he didn’t really want to be king in itself, just prove that he could, and he crowned one of his sons as soon as that son was mature enough for the job.

Odin ages. One day he informs his family that he is going to personally take up arms in whatever war is going on at the moment. They all understand: Odin was a warrior and wishes to die in battle. None of them are happy about this, but they say nothing and respect his wishes.

I was going to contrive Odin’s death so that Thor and Loki could both be there to hold his hands and say goodbye to him. He would look at both of them and then say, “Loki.” “Yes, Father?” “Keep on… looking… after Thor.” And Loki would get all teary-eyed and say, “I will, Father. Always.”

And those are Odin’s last words.

A little later, Thor says to Loki, “Loki, I’m sorry.” When Loki gives him a questioning look, he goes on, “His last words to you were of me.”

Loki shakes his head. “You don’t understand. It’s the best thing he ever said to me.”

“How….”

“He trusts me with that which he loves the most.”

 

THE END


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